The present invention relates to a method of communication system and related devices. More specifically, it relates to a method of universal communication and related devices for the exchange of voice, data, and business transactions.
A commonly used communication system is the telephone system. Although the telephone system was initially intended for voice communication, today it is used for communication in a variety of media, such as fax document and digital data. Actually the sending or receiving device is not necessarily a traditional phone, and it can be a fax machine, or a computer, or some other device. The connection can be optical fiber or wireless, instead of the traditional metal wires. Computer controlled Advanced Intelligent Network (AIN) is gradually added to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). Such functions as caller ID, call waiting, call forwarding, voice mail, auto attendant, and interactive voice response are available.
Cellular phones provide an even more convenient tool for mobile communication. However, there are a few limitations on the use of cellular phones. At certain locations the radio frequency communication may be blocked. At certain environment the radio frequency communication may cause interference to other equipment. The voice quality and reliability still need improvement to reach the level available from a fixed line connection. There are also some health concerns about frequent exposure to radio.
The telephone numbering system currently used is mostly a physical location oriented system. For example, the standard format for telephone numbers in the United States is NPA-XX-)XXXX. The first three digitals specify the area code, the next three digitals the local exchange, and the last four digitals the specific subscriber line in the local exchange. A few exceptions include the N11 format for special services (411 for directory assistance and 911 for emergencies) and the 800 toll-free numbers. The location-oriented numbering system was a natural choice for the automation of the telephone exchange system, but it poses limitations today with the increasing communication demand. For example, when people change their offices, they have to either change their phone numbers or wait for the rearrangement of connections. With the development of more and more communication devices, it is troublesome to keep track of all the phone numbers. Moreover, when we want to call somebody, we need to try these numbers and hopefully one of them will get us to the receiver. There will be also a shortage of available phone numbers. There is a need for a people-oriented communication system.
There are several existing and proposed methods to overcome some of the limitations of the location-oriented system. For example, call forwarding is available to redirect phone calls to a new location. Several schemes are proposed to provide local phone number portability (U.S. Pat. No. 562,568, 5,717,748, 5,717,749, 5,867,570, 5,910,981, 5,949,865, 5,960,340, and 5,966,435). U.S. Pat. No. 5,982,870 by Pershan et al. proposed a multiple redirection design in an Advanced Intelligent Network platform. Some programs in the telephone industry, such as the xe2x80x9cFollow Mexe2x80x9d service offered by ATandT (See U.S. Pat. No. 5,960,340 by Fuentes), permit an individual be reached at a single subscriber number for all the telephone calls. All these schemes provide certain people-oriented functions at the receiving side. At the calling side the present communication system is basically location-oriented. The xe2x80x9ccaller IDxe2x80x9d offered by the industry is actually a xe2x80x9ccaller location IDxe2x80x9d. For example, when a man calls his wife from his office, the caller ID is the office telephone number with the company name. Later he calls his wife at a public pay phone, the caller ID is the pay phone number with no meaningful name. Then he calls his wife from a bar and the caller ID will be the telephone number of the bar with perhaps the name of the bar owner. In situations where people share a telephone, it is difficult, if not impossible, to tell who is who at both the receiving side and the calling side.
Voice telephone communication is the major contributor to communication traffic due to its characteristic of direct interaction between people. People use telephone to interact with one another. Conversation is one of the basic interactions between people and that is why voice communication constitutes a major part of telecommunication. Another area of people interaction is business transactions. Although the telephone network is used by point-of-sale transaction systems for communication with the central database, the transaction process is carried out mostly by card-form media. A people-oriented communication system will incorporate this important area of communication.
In addition, people""s communication needs become more and more versatile with the development of technology. The telephone network is no longer limited to voice communication. It also provides services such as internet, business transactions, and multimedia communication. This will present challenges to the telephone network in all its elements: station apparatus, transmission, switching, and signaling. An effective communication system will depend on the performance of the individual elements and more importantly on how they work together as a system to provide a variety of services to its users.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a method of universal communication, comprising: (1) Assigning user phone numbers, which represent users and are independent of physical phone numbers; (2) User verification and user signature service; (3) Dynamic binding of a user phone number to a physical phone number by a database.
A user phone number is a phone number representing a particular user, which can be used to uniquely identify an individual or organization. A physical phone number is a phone number corresponding to a particular physical location or physical device. A physical phone number can be used directly by the switch system to connect to a telephone or other communication device. For example, a user phone number is assigned to John Doe, the numbers of his office telephone, home telephone, fax machine, and mobile phone are physical phone numbers. Here the user phone number is preferably in the format of numerical numbers, but it can also be alphabetical text and other characters. The physical phone number is not restricted to telephone communication and it is used to mean other addresses to physical communication devices.
The separation of the user phone number from the physical phone number will provide flexibility and scalability of the telephone network. From a functional point of view, the user phone number is people oriented and the physical phone number is location oriented. One user phone number can be related to a number of physical phone numbers of the particular user. Therefore, the system is ready for the increase in communication devices. The user phone number will be primarily used in people-oriented services, while the physical phone number will be primarily used in the efficient switching of the network. The numbering system for the user phone number adopts the existing format, thus providing back compatibility and a common interface in the telephone network. This allows the independent development in different areas of the network system. Implementation of new technology can be isolated at a chosen level and the modification is transparent to users in both the new system and old system. The combination of the two phone numbers then provides flexibility in the design of systems and services.
The user verification and signature service are two essential aspects of the proposed universal communication system. As a result of separation of the user phone number and the physical phone number, it is necessary to verify the identification of a user for billing and other functions. Digital signature will provide a method of transaction verification. Although virtual phone numbers are used in some prior art phone number portability schemes, it is the user verification and signature service that gives the user phone number the identification feature in a people-oriented universal communication system. Without the user verification and signature service, a virtual phone number, such as subscriber number and directory number, is simply a substitute for the corresponding physical phone number. This may cause problems in certain occasions. For example, an email may be sent out using the email address of another person and this can be frustrating for the receiver and the true owner of the email address.
When a user phone number is assigned, the user verification and signature service are established, but the corresponding physical number or numbers are not necessarily known. The user is given the flexibility to establish such a binding at their discretion. In fact, a user phone number without any associated physical numbers can still perform many communication functions. This is different from the prior art phone number portability schemes where the binding relation is known when the subscriber number is assigned. To use an analog in object-oriented programming languages like lava and C++, the binding according to the present invention is called dynamic binding or late binding. The binding relations are stored at a database system. The database system keeps track of the versatile physical communications associated with the user.
The method according to the present invention enables the user to send and receive information at any place where there is a phone connection, thus providing a universal communication system. In contrast, the prior art methods only provide a call forwarding function at the receiving end.
According to one aspect of the present invention, a phone call includes the following parts: [Receiver phone number]+[Caller phone number and verification]+[Message type]. The message type is voice by default. It can be fax, text, credit card, music, movie, secured information, etc. The message signal may be transmitted in a different order or format as long as the information can be obtained in the communication system.
In the prior art calling system, the calling party dials the phone number of the receiver and the caller ID is provided by the central office through a digital signal. The proposed calling structure provides more information for the switching system to handle the message efficiently when different media are transmitted in the telephone network. This also gives the user the flexibility to handle different communication media. When the additional information is missing, it is taken as a default telephone calling. This provides back compatibility with the present telephone system and at the same time offers more functionality to areas where the advanced intelligent network is available.
The use of user phone number in the calling structure gives the receiver the true identification of the caller instead of the physical location provided by the caller ID in the prior art system. Therefore, the true caller identification can be provided regardless of the location of the originating call. This will avoid some of the privacy concerns in the use of caller ID. Generally speaking, people would like to identify themselves in a telephone conversation but may have reservation in revealing the physical location in certain circumstances.
It should be noted that in the numbering system of mobile telephone communication an internal number known as International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) is used, which may corresponds to more than one dialed number such as voice, fax, and data. The dialed number is called Mobile Station Integrated Services Digital Network number (MSISDN). In addition, an International Mobile Equipment Identity number (IMEI) is used to identify the mobile phone. However, the operation is just the opposite of the method used in the present invention. In the prior art, different dialed numbers are converted to an internal number, but in the present invention a single number will be dialed to reach different physical communication devices.
According to another aspect of the invention, the physical numbering system can be in a format for the efficient operation of the switching system for different message type and it is not restricted by the current numbering system. For example, broadband communication and internet data communication may use different addressing systems than the physical number system of voice communication. As the universal communication method according to the present invention provides a common interface for all communication media, independent physical dialing systems can be used in different areas. Therefore, advanced systems can be first adapted in certain areas with great communication demand with full compatibility across the public switched telephone network.
According to still another aspect of the invention, physical dialing is available as an alternative when the purpose is to reach a specific location. The physical dialing number may be of the following format:[physical dialing mode indicator]+primary node number+[node separator]+secondary node number+[node separator]+third node number+ . . . . The series can continue until the intended location is identified. This is similar to the addressing system in the computer directories and files. Short forms can also be used, such as one leading node separator for the current node and two leading node separator for the immediate upper node. The choice of physical dialing format can be local and message type specific.
According to still another aspect of the invention, a message in message communication mode is provided. During the communication in one type of message, another type of message can be transmitted and displayed properly. For example, during a normal telephone conversation, one can provide her telephone number and address in the text form and the other party can see the information on a display device, thus increasing the efficiency and avoiding possible errors in recording such information. Although simultaneous data and voice communication are possible in Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), the difference is that the second message is built upon communication parameters of the first message.
According to still another aspect of the invention, a handheld personal communication device is provided in the universal communication system, comprising: (1) A CPU for processing data and a nonvolatile memory coupled with said CPU for storing data and programs for user phone number verification and signature service; (2) Memory for storage of data; (3) A display device such as a LCD device; (4) A phone device for sending and receiving information, and providing input through the keyboard of the phone device; (5) A short-distance wireless communication device such as an infrared transceiver; (6) Data connection to connect the CPU with the memory, the display device, the phone device, and the short-distance wireless communication device. The short distance in this context is normally within a few meters but may extend to around 100 meters in some situations. This shortdistance communication device is especially useful for communication with electronic devices such as computers and payment systems.
This device acts as the personal controller in the universal communication system. It is the primary link between the user and the database. This device is the controller for the user to update the binding relationship of the user phone number and the physical phone numbers. Since its identification feature can uniquely identify the user, it can serve as a general identification. Moreover, the digital signature feature can be used in business transactions such as reservations, mail orders, on-spot transactions, vending machine payments, and ticket payments. As a universal communication tool, it provides better security, lower cost and more convenience than the card form media such as credit card and debit card. Information stored in the card form media can be stored in this device.
According to still another aspect of the invention, an adaptor is provided at the user end for the control of communication, comprising: (1) A CPU for processing-data and a nonvolatile memory coupled with said CPU for storing data and programs; (2) Memory for storage of data; (3) Circuit to detect control signals; (4) Switches; (5) Means for connecting to communication devices. The adaptor will deliver the incoming communication media to the intended user and physical devices. This will offer more control and flexibility in communication at the user end.
The present invention provides user phone numbers that uniquely identify the users and a universal communication system that accommodates versatile communication needs. It provides a unified communication system with flexibility for the development of the physical switching system, the software system, and user control. For the discussion below, the universal communication system according to the present invention will be termed xe2x80x9cUphone systemxe2x80x9d, the handheld personal communication control device will be termed xe2x80x9cUphonexe2x80x9d, the user phone number will be termed Uphone number, and the adaptor will be termed xe2x80x9cUphone adaptorxe2x80x9d.